Former Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt, his wife and several members of his football team provided nearly $60,000 in impermissible benefits and recruitment incentives to more than two dozen recruits and their families over a three-year period. , according to a notice of NCAA allegations, a copy of which was obtained by Sports Illustrated through a public records order.
The 51-page document sent to the school on Friday outlines 18 separate allegations of egregious recruitment misconduct by Pruitt and her staff that took place in September 2018, her 10th month on the job, and extending into the dead period of recruitment for the school. 2020 COVID-19. All allegations are Tier I, considered the most egregious on the NCAA scale of infractions.
In the most serious of all allegations, Pruitt and her team welcomed at least six potential clients and their families on nine unofficial weekend visits during the year-long dead period, providing them with lodging, meals, transportation, household items, and even furniture. that totaled $12,000. Pruitt himself is accused of having made cash payments of $3,000 and $6,000 to the mothers of two prospects, the first used to help with medical bills and the other to down a vehicle.
FORDE: Vols fans did it. Now the chickens have returned home to roost.
Tennessee fired Pruitt for cause in 2021 and failed to pay his $12.6 million buyout.
Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services
In all, Pruitt and seven staff are accused of having committed violations, all of whom were fired in January 2021 after an internal university investigation uncovered alleged wrongdoing. The list includes defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley, outside linebackers coach Shelton Felton, inside linebackers coach Brian Niedermeyer, director of player personnel Drew Hughes, director of recruitment Bethany Gunn, assistant director of recruitment Chantryce Boone and a student assistant whose name has been removed from the report. .
The ninth person charged with violations, Pruitt’s wife Casey, allegedly made cash payments of at least $13,000 to recruits and their families. Casey has worked under NCAA rules at Troy University, his alma mater, and in the state of Florida.
Up to 12 UT athletes who received improper benefits competed in more than 60 games, the document says. These athletes played while “ineligible,” says the NCAA. The number of players and games is unclear because of the wording.
Despite 18 Tier I breaches – one of the highest totals in recent years, considering LSU received eight Tier 1s in March – the university has not been hit by “a lack of institutional control”, in large part because of its transparency and integrity in the immediate treatment of the irregularity. , say the NCAA documents. The institution showed strong cooperation with NCAA investigators, conducted its own thorough internal investigation, and took immediate action to fire the staff and sanction itself. The university awarded itself 12 football scholarships last season, in addition to imposing several other recruitment penalties, sources told SI.
“Receipt of our Notice of Claims was an expected and necessary step in this process – a process that our university has proactively initiated through decisive and transparent action,” Tennessee Athletic Director Danny White said in a statement Friday. “This brings us one step closer to a final resolution. Until we get to that point, I can’t discuss the case in detail. As a university, we understand the need to take responsibility for what happened, but we remain committed to protecting our current and future student-athletes.”
UT’s internal investigation included over 100 interviews. Former NCAA investigator Michael Glazier and Bond law firm Schoeneck & King helped with the investigation.
The NCAA’s 18-month investigation ends at an interesting time in the college sports industry. While the NCAA is transforming in a number of ways, including a review of the infringement process, athletes are being compensated through name, image, and likeness agreements that, in many ways, are providing similar benefits to those listed in the notice of allegations. Tennessee has one of the largest and most ambitious drive-led collectives in the country, although the school is not affiliated with it.
Tennessee’s investigation, cooperation and response, led by White and his new team, should be “the standard” in such investigations, the NCAA documents say. White took over from Phillip Fulmer retiring in January 2021, days after Pruitt and staff were laid off. One of his first moves was to hire Josh Heupel from Central Florida. Heupel won seven games in his first year and signed the 18th best class in the country. The Vols’ Class 2023 is currently in seventh place.
Tennessee has 90 days to respond to the charges and must not contest the charges. Given UT’s own response, in addition to the NCAA’s revised infringement process, the university is in a strong position to avoid the most severe sanctions.
The NCAA is in the final stages of adopting an infraction policy review with a penalty structure that focuses less on postseason bans. The intention is to avoid penalties that affect players who were not at school when the infractions occurred, with sanctions more focused on those specifically at fault, such as coaches.
Under the NCAA’s new penalty structure, Pruitt risks having penalties follow him to other jobs if he gets another one in college sports. The NCAA holds him primarily responsible for the alleged violations, stating that he failed to demonstrate and foster an atmosphere of compliance and did not adequately monitor his staff.
Nine of the 18 allegations involve Tennessee coaches or employees providing extra benefits to recruits and their families, many of them during unofficial campus visits. Seven of the allegations separately accuse each team member of violating the NCAA’s “ethical conduct,” three of whom (Gunn, Niedermeyer and Felton) gave false or misleading information to university and NCAA investigators, documents say.
The latter two charges accuse Pruitt of failing to fulfill his coaching responsibility obligations and the university of failing to monitor his football program. Neither Fulmer, or any other athletic administrators during the time of the alleged wrongdoing, were named in the report. Fulmer hired Pruitt.
Casey Pruitt arranged for representatives to take a recruit’s mother on a tour of rental homes in the Knoxville area.
Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel via Imagn Content Service
Pruitt and his wife were involved, paying the recruits and their families more than $25,000 in cash together, according to the allegations. Casey Pruitt also arranged for representatives to take a recruit’s mother on a tour of rental homes in the Knoxville area and provided a potential client with $1,600 for a security deposit and first month’s rent. She also paid $12,000 in rent payments to a potential client or her family. Team members, including Jeremy Pruitt, paid seven current football players $1,300 to host prospects during the dead period.
During the COVID-19 recruitment dead period, NCAA Vice President of Enforcement Jon Duncan issued a warning to schools that recruitment during this period would be aggressively investigated. He followed up with a statement nine months later that said, in part, “the enforcement understands the significance of these behaviors and we are actively addressing them to ensure fairness for schools that are following the rules.”
For Pruitt and his team, the extra benefits went far beyond the money — they paid for hotel rooms, some of them at the Crown Plaza in Knoxville, airline tickets, dozens of meals, and more. In one allegation, trainers handed over $500 worth of college clothes to potential clients while under the cover of a garage. In another, staff paid $225 for manicures for families. During an unofficial visit, trainers took prospects and family members on a fishing trip that included a meal at Knoxville’s famous Calhoun’s restaurant and trainers spending $175 on a meal for a potential customer’s family at Dead End BBQ.
On at least two occasions, staff have spent $225 at McDonald’s for potential customers and their families, though the fast-food bags only included food and not cash, as TV and radio presenter Dan Patrick erroneously reported. Staff members also bought Chick-fil-A breakfasts for recruits.
During his three years in Knoxville, Pruitt was billed as an elite recruiter, having worked with the best – Nick Saban in Alabama and Kirby Smart in Georgia. Its two full subscription classes in 2019 and 2020 ranked 13th and 11th nationally. However, the Volunteers have only gone 16-19 in their three seasons, winning just three games in their senior year. The school fired him for cause, refusing to pay his $12.6 million purchase. Pruitt’s attorney, Michael Lyons, has threatened legal action if the school doesn’t reach a settlement with his client. So far, no legal action is known.
Pruitt is now believed to be out of training after a one-year stint on the New York Giants coaching staff. Pruitt and other team members were fired when the Giants fired head coach Joe Judge last January.
None of the other staff members listed in the NCAA document are believed to be in the college’s ranks. Ansley, who spent two stints under Saban in Alabama, is now the defensive backs coach for the Los Angeles Chargers. Hughes is the Jaguars’ director of player personnel. Felton is the head coach at Valdosta High School in Georgia and Niedermeyer is the defensive coordinator at IMG Academy in Florida. Gunn and Boone’s employment status is unclear.
The allegations come 11 years after an NCAA investigation found violations serious enough by basketball coach Bruce Pearl that the school fired him. He received a three-year sentence for the show. In the same investigation, then-coach Lane Kiffin and his team were accused of having committed 12 minor violations over the course of 10 months. The school self-imposed probation and draft sanctions in basketball and football.
Pearl and Kiffin are back at the SEC. Pearl is at Auburn and Kiffin is at Ole Miss.
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